Action at Aurora

Burlington Route

At the Burlington Route’s station in Aurora, Ill., on a February 1946 day, Pacific 2850 pulls away from a string of suburban cars as two trains stand on other tracks. In the middle is a 22-car empty troop train waiting for a locomotive to take it west, while at left is the eastbound North Coast […]

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Wabash’s Banner Blue

Wabash Railroad

Hudson type 706 leads the Wabash’s Chicago–St. Louis Banner Blue through Chicago Ridge, Ill., in August 1948. The train retained its heavyweight equipment – including open-platform observation car – until 1960. Bob Borcherding photo […]

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A rare 0-10-2 Union type

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 605 simmers at Proctor, Minn., on a September 1954 night. She’s a rare 0-10-2, of which only nine were built, all for Pittsburgh’s Union Railroad, in 1936-37. They came to sister U.S. Steel road DM&IR in 1949. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Olympian Hi in Montana

Milwaukee Road Olympian Hiawatha

One of the Milwaukee Road’s six Skytop sleeper-observation cars brings up the rear of the Olympian Hiawatha near Francis, Mont., 100 miles east of Butte, in an early 1950s publicity photo. MILW photo […]

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Erie bay-window caboose

Erie Railroad caboose

Modern steel cabooses, such as Erie bay-window C300 in 1953, included such improvements as on-board radio (with RADIO EQUIPPED lettering and lightning bolts) and electric lighting (note the generator below and to the right of the bay). Erie photo […]

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Freight on the “WAG”

Wellsville, Addison & Galeton Railroad

Wellsville, Addison & Galeton GE center-cab diesel 1700 has a string of the colorful short line’s wood boxcars in tow at Ansonia, Pa., in March 1970. David H. Hamley photo […]

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CNJ Camelback 757

Central Railroad of New Jersey

Central Railroad of New Jersey Camelback 4-6-0 No. 757 accelerates a train out of the Jersey City terminal complex in the late 1940s or early ’50s. William R. Frutchey photo […]

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California Zephyr on a detour

California Zephyr

The California Zephyr shares dual-gauge trackage with a Rio Grande 2-8-0 at Salida, Colo., on June 18, 1951. The CZ shouldn’t be here on D&RGW’s Tennessee Pass line — it’s detouring around a washout on its regular Moffat Tunnel route. Bob Borcherding photo […]

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